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Hull
(Kingston-upon-Hull)
East Riding of Yorkshire

Yorkshire & Humberside

Pearson Park

Whispering sweet nothings

Julian Barnard
2017

Hull /  Whispering sweet nothings   Hull /  Whispering sweet nothings

Description

Wooden sculpture made from a dead Wych elm. Julian Barnard writes about his sculpture:

Hull - Whispering sweet nothings Hull - Whispering sweet nothings Hull - Whispering sweet nothings

The initial design for the top was for two heads. The first: old bearded male poet, facing down the park and the other, female, facing Larkins house. I roughed out the first with a chain saw and moved onto the second. Having got close up the trunk was too narrow at the front so I turned the head around. In working on it I realized it was talking to the first head and! I had my working title 'Whispering Sweet nothings'
The originally intended, second head was to be female but it became more male as the features became more pronounced. I took the opportunity to include 'Asian' facial characteristics so as to make it more inclusive. It was coming up to the LGBT week and I realized I could improve on the inclusiveness by making the heads more gender ambiguous.
I carved out an arm and got the hand to hold a book thus accenting the poetic aspect. Looking at the main head you will notice that she! Has her eyes closed, thinking about what he! Is saying and the corner of the mouth on this side is slightly turned down, indicating to him she is not massively impressed. However on the other side the moth is slightly turned up suggesting that she does quite like the sentiment. The top of the main head has a bun which was to be a separate element but I realized it made a more complete image as a bun. The back of the other head had a long cleft and this became the hair as pigtails, the bottom of this feature was a complicated area of little branches - a burr - and this I drew out as the untethered ends of the pig tails. Holding the hair is a little 'face' clasp. Beneath the arm of the whispering head is a toad as a reference to Larkin
Whilst I was wrestling with the deep cleft between the heads I started in the west facing head. This is a male face with beard and it is speaking to visitors, reciting poetry or welcoming people into the park and maybe telling them to pick up their litter when they leave.
Round the neck of the taller head is a collar. Down the north side an arm. Out of the bottom of the book I carved a fish. It was intended to be a cod [a local reference] but has ended up being more of a Salmon. I resolved the fish by getting the arm to come to a hand that was supporting it. The hand is too small for the arm but I was dictated to by the shape and condition of the wood at that point. This marks the top of a deep cleft of rotten timber that had been eaten into by wood boring beetles. I excavated it and it snakes its way down to the roots. This rotten area influenced my intended designs.
I decided early in designing that I would make the imagery more child friendly nearer the ground and this fits with experience. Whatever designs I start with by half way through the reality of the material and execution means they have had to be modified, sometimes to the point of irrelevance.
On the lower level I discovered a lion, my granddaughter loved the idea of a lion in the park, particularly as it has got its claws into a peacock it has caught in the bushes. In its mouth is a moth [reference to Amy Johnson] Round from this is the cleft which undercuts a burr. I experimented with this feature until it turned, unexpectedly, into a potato head. Next to this is a baby Elephant reaching up. Further round there is a snake which curls around a timid mouse and has its jaws closed onto an unfortunate bird. Underneath the whispering head pigtail is a witch - because - the tree is a Wych Elm.
Snaking up from the tree base is prehistoric scaly fish or crocodile leaping up to grab the old man's beard. I struggled with this image as before I cut the teeth it looked like a tree trunk leading into foliage which is the beard of the face above. 'It's a tree on a tree' was the delighted exclamation I heard. In the end I went with the crocodile as it reached to the ground – but it really needs an alarm clock now!
Around the base there are a variety of small creatures. Nestled into the sweeping arc of a tree root is a door and above it: a mole, another bird, a dogs head, a gonk, a Hippopotamus [an acknowledgement to Tilsons whose logo is a Hippo], A dog making off with the sausages, an alien [more inclusiveness] a rams head, a monster and round the back a partridge sheltering in the cleft.

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Inscription(s)

Hull - Whispering sweet nothings whispering
sweet
nothings
hull 2017
JB.

Sculptor

Tags

Locatie (N 53°45'25" - W 0°21'25") (Satellite view: Google Maps)

Item Code: gbyh063; Photograph: 25 July 2019
Of each statue we made photos from various angles and also detail photos of the various texts.
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© Website and photos: René & Peter van der Krogt

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